Reins in rivals
Mohammed Jamal caught by Spencer Allen on the deep midwicket boundary for a quickfire 48 off 16 and Dean Lord came into the attack and bowled a superb spell from the Woodhouse Lane end to change the course of the game.
Crompton refused to adapt their approach throughout and, perhaps naively, continued losing wickets going for the big shots rather than pushing it around and cruising to a total of 200+ which seemed inevitable after such a fast start. As a result, they were bowled out for just 147 with 3 overs remaining and that proved to be decisive.
Norden made hardish work of the run chase and a spectacular catch at deep square-leg from Harry Dean to dismiss Zaidi made things interesting, but Nick Brierley continued his return to form with an unbeaten half-century to see the Stags over the line and into an away quarter-final against local rivals Rochdale last night (Friday).
The seconds continued their good run of form with another 12 point win away to Walsden.
Norden were in trouble at 50 for 5 but a good partnership between skipper Phil Docker (25) and Mohammad Omar (44) saw them up to respectability and a total of 175 all out.
Mo Munawar then picked up 4 wickets and there were three for Usama Malik as Walsden could only reach 153 before being dismissed.
The thirds suffered a rare defeat, going down to Lowerhouse 4th XI by five wickets.
It was tough going for the Norden batters against some good spin bowling in particular and only
Ahsan Tariq, Jimmy Drury and Joe Gordon managed to reach 20.
Norden’s last 5 wickets fell for just fiveruns and their 161 felt well underpar.
Will Hindley picked up a couple of early wickets but dropped catches and poor ground fielding let the home side down and Lowerhouse cruised home with over 10 overs to spare. Norden, though, remain top of the table.